Talking about your generation

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- If you've ever griped about your 20-something co-worker who is always attached to her iPod or the 30-something who never seems to be working at his desk, you're probably a baby boomer -- and those same workers are probably griping about your penchant for face-to-face meetings.

Thanks to a variety of trends, including technological changes, the disappearance of job security and a new generation of workers whose numbers will rival that of the baby boomers, some workplace experts say generational clashes are occurring with greater frequency than before.

"It is very much a hot topic for us," said Janice Smith, a Denver-based lead development consultant for Ernst & Young, the New York-based accounting and consulting firm.

Smith holds workshops with Ernst & Young employees on how to handle generational differences, workshops prompted in part by managers who've asked for help. Managers are saying "we sense that what worked for us even three years ago isn't working now, and we want to be able to understand why," Smith said.

While it's impossible to generalize about the likes and dislikes of millions of people in each generation, workplace experts tend to point to younger workers' strong need for immediate feedback, while workers now in their thirties and early forties often demand greater work-life balance and flexibility.

Meanwhile, a common complaint among baby boomers and older workers is that the younger workers need a lot of hand-holding and don't understand the need to simply put their heads down and work.

These disparities are "definitely something some companies are grappling with," said Diane Piktialis, research working group and project leader on the mature and multigenerational work force at the Conference Board, a nonprofit research organization.

Ernst & Young is not alone. IBM started discussing generational diversity about three years ago, creating task forces last year to better understand the issues and holding its first summit on the topic with clients this year.

"Older people approach younger workers and younger workers approach the more mature workers sometimes with a bit of skepticism," said Ron Glover, vice president of global work force diversity at IBM. "There are real differences in terms of language styles, in terms of the expectations we see across these generations. If you just ignore them, those may become the source of disconnects in the workplace."

Merrill Lynch launched age-diversity programs about two years ago, and has trained more than 300 senior managers on issues of generational diversity, among other initiatives, said Deborah Tsai-Munster, director of global diversity and inclusion at Merrill Lynch.

Obviously, differences among the generations aren't new, but some companies are taking note now in part because the youngest generation, often called Generation Y, is large.

"We have a new generation that's entering the work force that is going to be, in terms of size, as large as the previous big generation" -- the boomers, said Subha Barry, managing director and global head for diversity and inclusion at Merrill Lynch. "When the numbers were small, the issues remained relatively small."

According to estimates by Rainmaker Thinking Inc., a New Haven, Conn.-based research and management-training company, here's how the work force looked in 2006 (researchers often use different dates for the two youngest generations):

The generation born before 1946 comprises 7% of the work force

Baby boomers, born from 1946 through 1964, represent 42%

Generation X, born from 1965 through 1977, is 29%

Generation Y, born in 1978 and later, is 22%.

Work is different

Another reason generational issues are more noticeable now: The workplace has changed. For instance, younger generations grew up without a sense of job security, Piktialis said.

"We've got the free agency workplace and I think that causes people, particularly the younger generation, to adapt different attitudes to the workplace," she said.

Noting that it's important not to overgeneralize about such large groups of people, she said "boomers are typically very competitive," she said.

"They've been described as the workaholic generation. Generation X wants more work-life balance. They saw their parents [work very hard] and their parents downsized or reorganized out of a job. They don't want to make the sacrifices their parents did."

Meanwhile, the youngest workers "often don't want to follow a chain of command," she said "They want to find the person they need to get done what they want to get done."

Also, rapid technological changes have affected the generations differently. "The way older, more experienced people are living through these changes in the business world and the workplace, that's a lot different than the way the younger people are experiencing these changes," said Bruce Tulgan, founder of Rainmaker Thinking.

It's not as though generational differences are a major problem for U.S. businesses or workers. But the differences add up to "a day-to-day communication struggle," Tulgan said.

Did u get my msg?

Here's an example: Younger workers sending text messages to a senior executive throughout the day, and expecting immediate responses.

That can be annoying, he said, but instant access is also useful. "As a senior executive reaching out to younger folk, I find it very helpful to know I can get to my younger team very quickly," Ringo said. "You just have to be careful about how you manage these things," he said, including letting your team know what to expect in terms of response time.

Ernst & Young's Smith offered another example of differing expectations: Recently, a Generation Y worker was typing on his laptop during a presentation Smith was giving.

"I could have made the assumption that his behavior was disrespectful," she said.

But "as I was talking, this person Googled the topic, then raised his hand and said here's something in today's paper on this topic. He contributed to the conversation," Smith said. "If we don't have the patience to check it out, tension will happen."

How much of a problem?

Some say generational differences are easily overcome when people work together toward a common goal. "If you and I, from different generations, different genders, different ethnicities are stuck working on the same project and we're properly incentivized, we can work through our differences because we want to get the job done," said Louis Lataif, dean of Boston University's School of Management.

The key, he said, is setting up the team correctly so that people are rewarded for a team success -- and not rewarded if the team fails. Too often, he said, team members go back to their respective departments and are rewarded no matter how the team fared -- and the awareness of that likelihood prompts team members to not contribute fully to the team's success.

Meanwhile, Max Caldwell, a managing principal with Towers Perrin, the consulting firm based in New York, said generational differences can create tensions, but often a company's overall culture is more important in determining workers' engagement.

"The rules and norms and customs around a culture are an even more powerful shaper in how I do my work and interact than the generational differences that are baked into me when I start my job," Caldwell said.

Managers' shifting roles

Still, others say managers should take note of generational differences if they want to engage workers. For instance, Generation Y workers want "feedback on a constant and very immediate basis," said Merrill Lynch's Tsai-Munster.

Managers "need to recognize that there is a different need for performance management," she said. "If managers aren't aware of the needs and desires of the generations beneath them, you are at risk of losing your talent to other companies."

And, while research points to Generation Y's desire for praise, simply heaping more praise on younger workers is not the answer, Tulgan said. "They want you to level with them. You could get away for a little while with praise, praise, praise, but once they get the idea 'you're just humoring me,' that's really going to rub them the wrong way."

Also, younger workers are likelier to seek new challenges quite often. "They don't really want to stay with one specialty or one type of job or role for long periods of time," said Barry, at Merrill Lynch.

"That's great -- [unless] you keep losing them to other companies," Barry said. The key is that younger workers "don't leave you to go to the same kind of job," she said. "They go to something completely different. We have to create the career pathing that allows that. That's not typically been the way large companies think."

Flexibility goes a long way

Being flexible about how work gets done goes a long way to easing tension, some say. "It's about really taking a look at productivity as opposed to how things are done," Tsai-Munster said.

"Working on my laptop with my iPod in my ears, or working from home, versus working in a very structured and formal approach: Managers need to be more flexible in thinking about this," she said.

Also, consider differing communication styles.

"Communication from baby boomers to [younger workers] needs to be very succinct and right to the point," said IBM's Ringo. "They don't have a lot of patience for a lot of talking and working things through. It's 'what do I need to do, tell me what I need to do.'"

Ringo also noted that generational differences are only one difference to consider; managers must assess personality types as well, such as whether the worker is more analytical or more expressive.

"An effective [manager] picks up on these differences in people's personalities," he said. "That's an overlay you have to put regardless of generation."

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